HOORAY AND HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

22/03/2008 by Ted.

For me this is the best time of the year. It has everything going for it  -  the winter is past, the flowers are here again, the shrubs and bushes and trees are beginning to sprout leaves and a year full of hope and anticipation lies ahead. And today is an especially nice day too.  In the Christian calendar it is called Holy Saturday -the day between Good Friday when Jesus was crucified and Easter Sunday, the day of His glorious resurrection from the dead.  There is a stillness about the day and I always tingle with anticipation on Holy Saturday because I know what follows.

I know I said I wasn’t going to go on about Jesus on the Family News side of the blog, (just in the INNER ROOM - link on the right panel) but just let me share this with you.  Read it slowly and just try and catch the atmosphere of of how these guys felt as these events happened.

John 20:1-20

20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.  So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 

At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus.

 ”Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”